WTNH PHOTO
Two men stole a man’s car, then fled from the cops — until fatally crashing at Beth El Keser Israel (BEKI) synagogue at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Harrison Street.
The crash occurred Monday just after 1:35 a.m.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman.
Police first heard about the carjacking at 12:05 a.m. It was reported at Fitch and Blake streets. A man told police that two other men, one of whom indicated he had a gun beneath his clothes, held him up there. He gave them his wallet and cell phone. They took his 2005 Toyota as well.
A cop saw the car at Whalley and Winthrop at 1:35 a.m. The officer “followed the car until back-up arrived — then tried initiating a stop,” Hartman wrote in a release. “The driver fled from police.”
After losing sight of the car, cops found the Toyota “minutes” later at BEKI, where it had crashed. Both men inside the car, who are “believed to be the car-jackers,” died. WTNH reported that one of the men died upon impact, the other, later, at the hospital.
The two men were identified as Tommy Clayton Brown, 23, of New Haven, and Andrew Bolden-Velez, 20, of West Haven.
The vehicle struck the synagogue on the Whalley Avenue side of the building, leaving a hole in the exterior wall by the social hall and damaging glass in the rear of the main sanctuary. Daily services were scheduled to take place as usual Monday.
Police have turned over the investigation to the state’s attorney’s office.